Teen Pregnancy: Preparing For Adulthood And Responsibilitiesy

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Teen Pregnancy
Teen pregnancy is a health behavior that affects young men and women in the 13 to 19 years age group, a stage during which society is preparing them for adulthood and the attendant responsibilities. It is essentially an intense learning phase where young people transition physically, mentally and socially into adulthood and maturity. This stage, often beginning earlier in females compared to males, is adolescence.
The defining health behavior that teenagers have is sexual maturity or the transition into fully functional adults sexually. The anxiety at this stage often acts as the basis for other health behaviors that afflict teenagers. These challenges can broadly fall into two categories: physical and emotional/mental. The physical health behaviors are usually consequences of the rapid changes taking place in teenagers’ bodies, as they transform into adults capable of handling mature corporal challenges.
Some common physical health behaviors that teenagers face include under-nutrition or over-nutrition, which leads to challenges such as anorexia, obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Due to their inexperience and curiosity, teenagers also end up participating in risky sexual behavior that may lead to sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy and mental imbalances in sex. Another set of health behaviors teenagers encounter is substance abuse that may manifest in harmful alcohol consumption, tobacco use, drug abuse, etc (Bolin et al, 2017, 113).
Mental health behaviors that teenagers also undergo include mental disorders that manifest in stress, suicide, depression, inferiority complexes and self esteem issues and other ways. These are consequences of adjustments teens make while transitioning from childhood into adulthood. Societal pressures, mostly manifested in peer pressure and academic expectations may place a burden on teens that they do not know how to address, leading to mental disorders and other adverse health behaviors
Teen pregnancy is a common health behavior teens face across continents and races. Sexual maturation and curiosity, coupled with intense physical changes such as the increased androgen production in males and estrogen in females may lead adolescents into experimentation, often in the form of risky sexual activity generally due to ignorance. Unprotected sexual encounters t...